Countdown to Thanksgiving: Stellar Pie Pastry is Possible for Everyone!

November has a special excitement all its own as Americans crave and look forward to the fabulous flavors of a bountiful Thanksgiving table. Heightened anticipation for favorite family recipes abounds, while new culinary traditions may be embraced when multiple generations of families and friends gather together in the kitchen to create this holiday feast.

This year, PBS Chef, author, and lifestyle guru Christy Rost is helping to ensure accolades for those responsible for the all-important Thanksgiving dessert course by sharing her techniques for delectably buttery and flaky pie pastry.

To complement the inspirational and heart-warming Holiday cooking, entertaining and decorating guidance she provides during her annual PBS television special, A Home for Christy Rost: Thanksgiving that is being broadcast across the country this month, Christy created her 2013 Autumn Baking page on www.christyrost.com with a focus on baking both sweet and savory delights. Christy’s signature pie pastry recipes always receive rave reviews, as home bakers will discover in both her Butternut Squash Pie and Autumn Apple Pie recipes – both perfect additions to this year’s Thanksgiving menu. Christy’s pastry has the ideal balance of texture, moisture, flecks of butter, and tenderness that makes the pastry easy to work with, allowing for beautiful artistry of fluted edges, autumn leaf shapes, and other decorative details that impact the “wow” factor when this year’s pies are served.

“I learned how to make pie pastry from my grandmother Henrietta,” shares Christy. “Her pies were showstoppers every time, and some recipes have become cherished Holiday family traditions. Grandmom taught me that a flaky crust comes from using ice cold butter, ice water, and gentle handling of the pastry. Even though I now use a food processor to make my pastry, rather than cutting the butter in by hand as she used to do, I am ever mindful of my grandmother’s baking wisdom. She also gave me my first pastry cloth – a soft canvas cloth and rolling pin “sock” that ensure the pastry doesn’t stick to the counter while it’s being rolled out. Now I’m the one that receives accolades during dessert, just as my grandmother did.”

PBS Chef and author Christy Rost’s recipe for pastry, featured here in her signature Butternut Squash Pie and Autumn Apple Pie, assures applause from everyone for dessert at Thanksgiving and at meals year round.

Following is Christy’s recipe for assuredly delicious pastry:

Pastry

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sifted cake flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 6 tablespoons ice water

Method

1. Place the flours, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times to mix.
2. Add cold butter and pulse until the butter is pea-size.
3. Add 5 tablespoons ice water and process at low speed until the pasty is crumbly.
4. Add the remaining ice water if the mixture appears dry and process on low until the pastry forms a ball.
5. Remove the pastry, divide it in half, wrap each half in plastic wrap, and chill at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Christy’s home décor advice is being featured among various news sources, including www.oprah.com

For information on programming and on Christy’s latest event schedule, visit www.christyrost.com